GBR flashing to mark territory?

[abw0004]

Good Morning All,
I have a German Blue Ram pair in my tank. They have been laying eggs and I will notice the female with flash a few times on things occasionally when it's not her turn to tend to the eggs/fry. This, naturally worries me that she is sick but she has been doing this for weeks and no other fish is flashing. There are no white spots (ich) anywhere. Is she doing this to tell the other fish to "stay away from my babies?" The water is pristine. I do 2 water changes a week and every time they lay eggs, I remove the aggressive dwarf gourami. Both GBR's have vibrant colors and have no clamped fins.

 

[Nils]

I would say yes, that this is something they might do when marking territory. My GBR was flashing and making weird turns and stuff with his bod so I treated for gill flukes and it went away. I have good water quality as well, so I was a bit confused. Just keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn't do anything weird.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Considering the condition of the water I would say it's just marking territory


Caleb

 

[abw0004]

Okay thank you!!

 

[evil Nick]

I have learned flashing is a way the fish just know how to stress you back for making them angry.
They know one flash against a leaf will drive you into a spiral of confusion, web surfing, pissing money away on crazy meds and just when you're done another does it.

In the beginning my fish would all go through a cycle of one flashing at a time. Through the forums and research I've pretty much narrowed it down to either an itch, certain death or a great big F you.

Just keep an eye on them. Perhaps the egg laying and stress of watching them is making her Ill and more susceptible in the tank or less resiliant to something like the ph.

For me I always keep seachem stress coat plus on hand. It's for my water changes but I dose a bit if they flash since it helps coat them...... Now seachem owes me a dollar!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[coralbandit]

Wondering how this has turned out or is going?

 

[abw0004]

Thanks for checking in. Well, I put a Dwarf Guorami in the hospital tank because he was fighting with the GBR's since they were defending their babies. He started to flash and the next morning it looked like he had flukes in his gills and other areas of his body (fine hair-like things attached to his body). So I came under the assumption the GBR's also had flukes. I started treating both tanks with Paraguard after the fry didn't make it for some reason.

I did however make a big mistake I believe. I was doing dips for the Gourami with no issues so I thought I would do the GBR's as well to hopefully know it out. The next morning I noticed the female GBR had half of her back tail "dead". No color, just dead skin pretty much. I will not do another dip for any fish after I saw what I did. I value them too much.